Biblically True Gospel

True Gospel

The rising number of half-truths and lies that parade as the "Gospel" today
makes knowing the Biblically true gospel imperative. And to know the true gospel
- the good news - we need to start with the bad news.
Here is the true gospel in an easy-to-understand form:

#1. God is perfect and so is His law.

#2. Because we are imperfect, we cannot keep God's perfect law.

#3. Any gap between God's perfect law and our imperfect obedience is
called, "sin," and all of us have sinned: "For all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23).

#4. The Bible-mandated punishment for sin is the death penalty:
"For the wages of sin is death, ..." (Romans 6:23, continued
below).

You may think you are a fairly good person according to your
standard of goodness. But according to God's standard of goodness (and God
judges us by His standard, not ours), all of us are
convicted death row inmates awaiting execution. This is the bad news.

What's the good news?

Because God loves us, He didn't want to wipe us
out. But because God is a just judge, He couldn't simply brush aside our sin
either.

Why not?

Imagine something horrific. Imagine catching a man murdering someone you love
very much.
Instead of exacting your own justice on the murderer, you haul him before a
judge and demand justice. If the judge declares himself a merciful person and
simply lets the murderer go free, would you consider him a good judge who upheld
justice?

A good judge must punish crime according to the law in order to uphold
justice. Likewise, God, who is
perfectly just, must punish sin according to His perfect law. Otherwise, He
would be neither just nor perfect - i.e., "Holy."

So what did Holy God do about our sin?

He hurled the punishment required by His law - death penalty - at us, but
then stepped in front of us to take upon Himself the full brunt of that
punishment, on the cross of Calvary.

Why?

Because He loves us, more than we deserve and more than we can imagine. If you truly believe
this, that Jesus so loved you that He died on
the cross to pay the death penalty due for your sins, you will live and have
eternal life in heaven: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life"
(John 3:16). This is #5, the true gospel, and the reason Romans 6:23 above concludes,
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

What if you don't believe that?

Then you will go to hell when you die, the Bible says, and burn forever to pay
the penalty for your sins
on your own: "The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will
gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice
lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing
and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:41-42)

What about all of the good works you've done in your
life?

If an Olympic athlete wins a gold medal and then murders someone, will his
gold medal performance exonerate him of his murder? The issue is sin, not
works.

Then why do Christians do good works?

Not to gain salvation but to thank and honor Jesus for having saved us.
Believing that good works saves us is akin to death row inmates believing that
good behavior will gain their freedom.